The Last Resort
by lilgreenmomo
Summary: Trapped by impenetrable magic, The Slayer is the only thing that can save them, a fact that no-one is happy about; least of all The Child of Bhaal. Quick fic based on an in-game mistake! (Spoilers for the Keldorn Romance Mod lie within).


Merin rattles the door handle. _Locked._ "Im, d'you reckon you can get this open?" she asks.

"Hmm, let's see..." Merin's sister stoops so she's eye level with the lock, draws a slim silver pick from where it's stitched in the lining of a sleeve and inserts it into the keyhole. "Aw, _man!_" she groans, withdrawing half the silver pick, "Sorry, Maer, It's the same as the others."

"Great! I thought we'd got them all?"

"W- What does that mean?" Aerie asks.

"It means I have no other choice," Merin replies, looking grim.

"No, Merin! I forbid it." Keldorn says, looking even grimmer than Merin.

"You _what_ now?"

"I won't let you expose yourself to that... that _evil!_"

"You want to get out of here, don't you?"

"Aye."

"Well it's the only option left to us so... all of you go back into the other room and shut the door."

Reluctantly, the others do as she asks, Valygar, squeezing her shoulder as he passes, but Keldorn doesn't move.

"Merin, you should not do this."

"Why are you still here?

"We will find another way."

"Kay, there is no other way!" she says, placing her hands on her hips and looking up at the knight. "Do you seriously think I'd even be contemplating this if there was?"

"No, but-"

"No, Keldorn, I'm not having this debate with you. My mind is made up."

"We could try to force the door."

"We tried that with the others, and all we succeeded in doing was giving Ano a concussion. If I thought brute force alone was going to do this I'd be dishing out the potions right now, but even Minsc couldn't shift that," she says, slapping a palm against the door, "it needs something more. The only other option we had available to us is lying dead on the floor and short of resurrecting the blasted thing, which will happen over my dead body, and trying to get one of these on it," she waves a circlet around, "well, we're back to Plan Zed, aren't we?"

"I won't let you put yourself at risk yourself like this."

"You have no choice in the matter, because I won't risk the chance of all of you not making it out of here, and this isn't just about us, we need to get those slaves out too."

"I understand that, Merin, but-"

"For the gods sake, Kay, we've fought hard to come this far and I'm damned if we'll be thwarted by a bloody door! It's about time being a Child of Bhaal offered something beyond turning us into moving targets for... for _freaks_ and _glory hunters_. And don't look at me like that, I'm hungry, I'm exhausted and I just want out of here, I'm not about to go on some murderous rampage, I'm just planning to reduce a rather ornate piece of carpentry to firewood." At this remark, Merin sees a flicker of something that might be a smile from Keldorn, but if it is his eyes don't betray it.

"If that is all there is to it you won't mind if I stay, will you?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Kay, why are you being so stubborn?"

"Because I think you will be making a grave mistake."

"If I am, and I don't agree, by the way, it's my mistake to make. A bigger mistake would be to let us rot in here when I can do something about it. Keldorn, please, if you want to help me, join the others, close the door and be ready."

"Ready?"

"For if I try to come through and... Oh, you know what I'm getting at," Merin says, dropping her head. As much as she knows this is the right course of action in the circumstances, it still doesn't feel right to her, she just wishes Keldorn would open his eyes enough to see it too.

As Merin stares at her feet Keldorn steps in close to her and takes her chin in his hand, tilting her head up to meet his searching gaze.

_He's reading me!_ she realises. He is studying her the way she's seen him study a stranger - a potential foe - seeking out signs of a threat. She feels her stomach clench. _What will I betray?_ she wonders, then more decisively: _Nothing! I know my own mind, I know my own heart, if I still had my soul I would know that too. I have nothing to hide._

And so she gazes back at him, impassive and unflinching, issuing an unspoken challenge. _What secrets do you hide, Lord Firecam?_ The clarity of his wordless answer unnerves her. Writ large in his eyes she sees it. _He's afraid! For himself? For me? Of me?_

He breaks eye contact and lets go of her, almost as though he's realised what she's seen. He turns to walk away but changes his mind and bends and brushes his lips to hers, chaste yet lingering and Merin doesn't know how to react. It's the first time he's kissed her lips since the night he told her he loved her - the night before the morning he told her that even though he loved her he couldn't give her what he thought she wanted so it could never happen again - and this kiss feels different. Had he kissed her on the cheek or her forehead - as he's been wont to do, unable it seems to forgo her attentions altogether - she might have read some affection into it, or an entreaty to take care, but this doesn't feel like an affirmation, it feels like a goodbye. And yet, Merin can't pull away. The will of her mind and the will of her body are no longer one, and the part of her that craves him so badly it aches is winning the battle for control while the voice in her head screams obscenities at her for being so weak. After a long moment she comes to her senses, pulls away, and turns her back on him and when he doesn't reach out to her she realises her instinct was right.

"Torm, forgive me," is the only thing he says before leaving the room and closing the door behind him, and standing alone, barely unable to breathe for weight of her heart in her chest, Merin closes her eyes, and lets the darkness out.

~xXx~


End file.
